Charges that a British woman, residing at the Broadway Mansions, had been manhandled by a Japanese sentry on the Garden Bridge, at about 430 o'clock on Friday afternoon, were denied by a Japanese naval spokesman at a press conference yesterday morning.
The woman, he claimed, had not been touched by any sentry. The Japanese naval authorities, he added, were not even aware of the woman's identity as she had been neither detained nor questioned.
Alleging that a British S.M.P. sergeant, on duty at the bridge, had taken a "provocative attitude," the spokesman continued, a demand that he be severely disciplined would be made to the Council by the Japanese naval authorities. The sergeant was identified by his collar number, "19".
"Gestures" Only According to the spokesman, the woman was proceeding across Garden Bridge on the right hand side of the oad. A sent "by means of gestures," directed her to the left hand side, which the spokesman said, she did, At this point, the sergeant is alleged to have run after the woman, brought her back, and made her proceed on the right hand side.
This, the spokesman stated, was a "provocation" in that it constituted a challenge to the authority of the sentries Questioned regarding. the woman's reported allegation that the sentry had picked her up with his two hands in causing her to cross from the right to the left hand side of the bridge, the spokesman replied that this was impossible because the sentry would be holding his rifle in one hand.
Foreign witnesses of the incident yesterday re-affirmed to the "North-China Daily News" that the lady had been roughly treated by the sentries, and that, she was in no way provocative towards the men. When the foreign police sergeant attempted to protect the lady, the sentries pum-elled him although he had not adopted a threatening attitude, it was stated.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.